FRAN'S P.O.V.
Jackie was waiting for us in the car as we walked out of the back gate, she looked a bit more clean than the state she was in lunchtime, she was wearing her Misfit’s tee shirt, black and red striped skinny jeans and her hair was pulled back in a black bandana, her full fringe still hanging in her eyes. I got in the car last and slammed the door, suddenly angry and wanting to get home.
“So, how was it?” Jackie asked, her deep English accent fighting over the loud Sex Pistols music which was pumping out the stereo. We stuck our thumbs up and nodded as she hit the accelerator and darted off down the street.
We got to our house in no time, my body had decided it was going to have a major mood swing session as when I got through the door I only made it halfway up the stairs before I burst out in tears. Cheyenne, Bob, Ray and Jackie scuttled off into the kitchen, they never really knew what to do when someone was crying, as none of them cried themselves. Gerard sat down next to me and pulled me onto his lap, Hollie on his left side and Mikey on his right.
“Hey, Frank, what’s up?” Hollie asked, her voice gentle and caring. I just shook my head and cried into Gee’s chest.
“Mood swings?” Mikey guessed and I nodded. Mikey and Hollie patted my arm and left, heading towards the kitchen with the others, leaving me and Gerard to sit on the stairs, him rocking me gently as I cried out the last of whatever was running through my system.
I sniffled and looked up at Gerard. “Sorry.” I mumbled, still clinging to his shirt as if it was my life.
“No need to apologise, I can’t imagine what your going through. But we will get through it together Frankie. The weddings in a month and after that it’s plain sailing, the baby will be born and everything will be just fine, I promise.” His voice was calm and reassuring, I would always believe whatever he told me.
“Gerard. How the hell are we going to afford a baby. The only one with a job is Jackie and then Ray’s Saturday job at the record store.”
“Frankie, don’t worry! We’ve got this far without any money trouble, we never go hungry or anything. I don’t know how we do it but we always have more than enough, we’ll manage easy, I promise.”
“I’m still not too sure about letting Jackie near me with a goddamn scalpel.” I giggled, my vampire skin was tough and we couldn’t go to a doctor because obviously, I’m a vampire! We have super sharp senses and our body temperature can sometimes get below freezing even though we can’t feel it. It means we never have to worry about jackets though, which is handy as I have the memory of a goldfish, i.e. three seconds.
“I’m sure she knows what she’s doing. Possibly.” He smirked, “C’mon, let’s go and get you some food Frankie boy.” I stood up off his lap and took his hand as we headed towards the kitchen, everybody was sat on the counters, laughing at Ray who had pepperoni in his ‘fro.
“Ray, you’ve got a bit of, uhh, pepperoni in your… afro.” I told him, his face was still blank, so I walked up and took the piece in between my thumb and forefinger before flicking it onto the floor and wiping my fingers on Ray’s tee shirt.
“Awwww, that’s our little veggie vamps.” Mikey cooed, chucking me under the chin with a long, bony finger.
“I can be a vegetarian vampire if I like.” I pouted, walking over to the freezer and retrieving a skittle’s ice lolly. “Yum. Skittles.” I said, taking an appreciative lick, I loved skittles. Gerard hopped up onto the counter and I did the same, struggling slightly with my short form, but I got there eventually.
“What are we going to do to entertain ourselves tonight then?” Hollie asked, swinging her legs like a little kid on the counter.
“We’ve done everything!” Cheyenne giggled and Bob nodded.
“How about a film? We haven’t watched anything in ages.” Mikey pointed out, we nodded and Gerard looked up from the spot on the kitchen floor he had been staring at.
“Not horror though, I can’t deal with that today.” I frowned at him- he was usually the biggest horror freak around! The others looked confused too, but we all knew better than to ask. If it was something serious, he’d tell us straight away, if not, we’d find out soon enough.
“Nightmare before Christmas?” It was my favourite, and if Gerard wasn’t in a horror mood, it’s probably what he’d want to watch.
“Sounds good.” He replied, crossing the kitchen to the fridge and pulling out a tin of Dr. Pepper.
“Guys, what do you want for tea?” Jackie asked, rooting through the cupboards.
“Can we order in a Chinese? I’d kill for one right now.” I asked, finishing my ice pop and putting the stick in the bin.
“I don’t see why not. You chose, I’ll get the phone.” Jackie grinned, everybody nodded and Ray pulled the menu out of the fridge (why we keep the take away menus there I will never know! Apparently, if you put something in the fridge, you never lose it.) he handed it to me and I reeled off my order.
“Vegetarian special curry fried rice, prawn crackers, vegetable spring roll, vegetable samosas and Tango. Lots of tango.” Jackie nodded and reeled off the order in a Chinese accent (which is incredibly amusing and scarily realistic) so the person the other end could understand. Everybody else told her their order and she translated into the strange voice. She put the phone down and walked over to the beanbags in the living room where we were all now sprawled.
“Ten minutes.” She told us.
“How much did it cost?” Mikey asked, he always had to know.
“Forty.” This was a lie, when you tell Mikey the price of something, you half it and take off ten pounds. Which means the Chinese cost $100. When you think about it, that’s reasonable for eight (nine if you count the baby) vampires.
Ray stood up and went over to the DVD rack, which spread all the way along one of the blood red walls. Everything in this house was either blood red, black or chrome. We used to have a fair bit of glass, but since the others and I got turned into vampires as well as Gerard and Jackie. He selected the right disc and shoved it into the DVD player before pressing play and flopping on the purple beanbag next to Jackie. The doorbell rung and Gerard jumped up to get it, grabbing Jackie’s wallet from the side on the way out (the Chinese doesn’t accept cards, and Jackie normally has plenty of cash anyway, so we all use her money. Luckily for us, she doesn’t notice.).
“ Okay, here we are Frankie.” Gerard said as he re entered the room and dumped my Chinese in my lap. It smelt divine and I was soon shoving it in my face at a freaky speed, my hunger escalating at the scent of fried rice.
“Jeez, Jackie, Hollie. How much do you want? You have wedding dresses to fit into you know.” Cheyenne giggled, picking at her spring roll. She had only ordered that! She’s been taking this wedding thing a bit serious; she wasn’t even big to start with, but she kept complaining about her thighs and now she just looks, well, not like Cheyenne. I liked her before, it was just how she was, it suited her. I don’t think I’m the only one who thinks that either.
“Actually, this is the first thing I’ve eaten all day.” Hollie said, before turning her attention back to the movie.
“Yeah, and I’m not going to fit into my wedding dress, my wedding dress it fitted to me. So buzz off.” Jackie stated. Jackie in a dress, or a skirt of any type, is something most of us have never seen before, it’s usually just skinny jeans or ‘trousers of epicness’ as she likes to call them. Occasionally she’ll wear shorts but never skirts.
“Wow. Jackie in a skirt!?” Gerard mused from beside me as I downed the rest of my Chinese at the same time as him and snuggled up to share prawn crackers.
“I don’t like it any more than you do but it is going to happen. I was happy to come in jeans with a simple ‘I do, he does, can we go now?’ but Ray wouldn’t have that. Stubborn afro unicorn that he is.” Jackie grumbled, sinking further into the beanbag and starting to polish off the rest of her chicken chow mien.
“I actually wanted to wear a dress. But you lot have seen me in a dress or skirt before, so it’s not that amazing. Hold on- did you just call Ray an afro unicorn, like that comic book you started to write in year eight?” Hollie asked and Jackie nodded, before leaning back onto Mikey’s chest and nibbling her spring roll, shrugging and stuffing it in her mouth, causing Mikey to giggle and Hollie to whack him round the back of the head yelling “Wasp!”
“Oh my God do you still remember that?!” Cheyenne exclaimed as her, Hollie and Jackie laughed at some sort of memory.
“That was priceless, almost as priceless as when-“Hollie gave Jackie an evil glare “Yeah, I’ll shut up now.” Jackie mumbled, leaning her head on Ray’s shoulder as she undid he belt buckle and stretched “Shoes off, fly’s open and feeling no pain.” She grinned and we all settled down to watch the movie, sipping our soft drinks and nibbling our Chinese leftovers. No matter how much you ate and how full you felt, you could always eat more.
When the movie had finished we were all feeling fat and knackered, so we all decided to go to bed, I was nervous about college tomorrow, but hopefully people still had Ray’s outburst fresh in their minds from today. I fell asleep worrying about tomorrow; it was like high school all over again. Only this time, they don’t expel people for bullying.